Panzer Dragoon Orta

Thousands of years after the fall of the ancient civilisation the
world is a cruel and unpleasant place, and the few remaining human
tribes live in fear of biogenetic terrors - powerful artefacts born
out of blasphemy. In the midst of the battle for precious water
resources, the Empire discovers a factory in the ruins of the Old
Century and manages to shape its own organic weapon - the Dragon.
The key to restoring peace to this distorted world is a young girl
held captive under ball and chain.

Her name is Orta

Tonight at nine: When Dragons Attack!

Panzer Dragoon
Orta is the latest game in a series which has grown in infamy since
its release on the Saturn way-back-when. Its exclusivity on Xbox
will be enough to sell thousands of the consoles to hardcore gamers
bent on playing the latest instalment, and in its own right it
looks and sounds like a fantastic game.

Each of the game's 10 stages will be tied together by sumptuously
detailed cut-scenes, and will feature a climactic boss encounter.
This is of course preceded by lots of fast-paced dogfighting with
other sky-dwellers. Orta's dragon companion will be able to take
different paths depending on timing as well as observation - a bit
of speed at the time will see the pair swoop through a crumbling
rock pass, whereas failure to make it in time will seal that door
shut and leave Orta looking for another way past.

The dragon's weapons are varied and perhaps a little obscure. The
main weapon is a lock-on laser which is fired from the mouth and
can hit multiple targets. This weapon powers up as the dragon
morphs. As there are three stages of metamorphosis, which sees the
dragon upgraded for certain situations, so too there are three
specific levels to the lock-on laser. The second stage increases
its accuracy and inflicts more damage, whilst the highest dispenses
with the laser and has the dragon steal hit points from enemies and
unleash a berserker attack with immense destructive power.
Furthermore, Orta herself, perched atop the winged beast, can
unleash attacks using whatever weapons she happens to have handy.
This manual shooting is supposed to be a fair bit more accurate
than the dragon's own attacks.

Graphically, Panzer Dragoon Orta is clearly going to wow a lot of
people. The screenshots and footage released so far top almost
anything so far shown on the Xbox, and if Sega can pull off the
level of detail they're promoting, and couple it with a compelling
enough adventure, Panzer Dragoon Orta could be one of the biggest
and most successful Xbox titles since Halo.

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